One of the leading utility vehicle manufacturer in the country, Tata Motors has announced its partnership with location technology provider, what3words. The what3words addressing system enables car-drivers to enter a three-word address by voice or text input, and then navigate to the accurate address within three meters of the destination location. The what3words system is available in 36 languages, including five Indian languages - Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. The what3words will be available in upcoming products by Tata Motors and the customers will be able to download the what3words application for free via iOS and Android platforms.
Tata Motors claims that the technology is relevant in the Indian context where addresses are non-standard and complex network of roads make it difficult for last-mile navigation. This accurate and unique 3 word-addressing system will make the last-mile navigation simple, safe, hassle-free and less time-consuming for the Indian customers. The varying regional address formats across the country, often unnamed streets and localities coupled with more often than not buildings with no numbers, further compound this problem. To solve this real-world issue, what3words has reportedly taken the entire world, divided it into 3mx3m squares, and assigned each square a unique identifier – made of three random words. For example, Gateway of India can be found at ///holiday.surpises.design.
A three word address can simply be entered into the car navigation system, manually or via speech recognition. To prevent errors, every three word address is unique, and similar addresses are located far apart to avoid confusion. Additionally, the intelligent AutoSuggest feature helps drivers to spot and correct their mistakes immediately and effortlessly redirects them to the accurate address.
Speaking on the occasion, Mayank Pareek, President – Passenger Vehicle Business Unit (PVBU), Tata Motors said, “Tata Motors is proud to be the first automaker in India to collaborate with what3words. With this collaboration, our customers will now be able to navigate to accurate three-word addresses represented by what3words; offering a clear solution to a very visible problem related to the non-standard traditional address system. The three-word addressing will not only provide a more seamless navigation experience, but will also increase efficiency with drivers not spending a lot of time locating their destinations and reaching the precise location (within three metres of space) with minimum hassle and effort. Globally, the what3words technology comes as a unique offering only in the premium car models, but customers can expect this groundbreaking technology to feature in our mainstream line-up of products very soon.”